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Yitzhak Shamir: the Well-Liked Terrorist

July 2, 2012

As Israeli history has disappeared into a rose-color haze of pleasing propaganda, some of the hard truths are conveniently forgotten – such as the unabashed terrorism of ultra-nationalist leaders like Yitzhak Shamir, whose death has prompted eulogies that ignore his war crimes, writes Nima Shirazi.

By Nima Shirazi

Sometimes terrible people live long lives. Such is the case with Icchak Yezernitsky, a Russian-born racist, terrorist and eager ethnic cleanser who is better known to the world as former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Shamir died on June 30 at a Tel Aviv nursing home from Alzheimer’s Disease at the ripe old age of 96. One can only wonder if he had forgotten all the war crimes he committed.

Shamir was one of the leaders of Lehi (also known as The Stern Gang), a Zionist terrorist militia which rampaged through Palestine in the 1940s. Were anyone to dispute that Lehi was a terrorist group, Shamir proudly affirmed that particular description in a 1943 article he wrote entitled “Terror.” Shamir wrote,

“Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war. … We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle.

“First and foremost, terror is for us a part of the political war appropriate for the circumstances of today, and its task is a major one: it demonstrates in the clearest language, heard throughout the world including by our unfortunate brethren outside the gates of this country, our war against the occupier.”

The Zionist terror campaign of Plan Dalet, put into effect in early 1948 and described by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, consisted of “large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding population centres; setting fires to homes, properties, and goods; expulsion; demolition; and finally, planting mines among the rubble to prevent any of the expelled inhabitants from returning.”

Shamir seemed to relish the opportunity to terrorize, murder and ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous population into order to make room for the nascent state of Israel. The massacre of Deir Yassin in April 1948, during which over 100 unarmed villagers were murdered, was carried out by Zionist commandos of Shamir’s Lehi and Menachem Begin’s Irgun (of which Shamir was a former member).

Following Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence in May 1948, the United Nations reassessed its approach to the partition of Palestine and appointed a mediator, Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte, to come up with new proposal while taking into account “the aspirations of the Jews, the political difficulties and differences of opinion of the Arab leaders, the strategic interests of Great Britain, the financial commitment of the United States and the Soviet Union, the outcome of the war, and finally the authority and prestige of the United Nations.”

Notice that the rights of the indigenous Palestinians were not included in this mandate. Nevertheless, while Bernadotte’s second proposal was produced in consultation with British and American emissaries, then-President Harry Truman undermined its progress in the UN due to pre-election Zionist influence in the United States.

When Bernadotte finally presented his progress report, “Mediation, Truce Supervision, Refugees, Proposals for Peaceful Settlement,” on Sept. 16, 1948, it included this unequivocal statement regarding the Palestinian Right of Return:

“It is not yet known what the policy of the Provisional Government of Israel with regard to the return of Arab refugees will be when the final terms of settlement are reached. It is, however, undeniable that no settlement can be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the right of the Arab refugee to return to the home from which he has been dislodged by the hazards and strategy of the armed conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine.

“The majority of these refugees have come from territory which, under the Assembly resolution of 29 November, was to be included in the Jewish State. The exodus of Palestinian Arabs resulted from panic created by fighting in their communities, by rumours concerning real or alleged acts of terrorism, or expulsion. It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries.” (A/648 1.V.6)

The very next day, Sept. 17, 1948, Bernadotte was assassinated in West Jerusalem by members of Lehi, acting on Shamir’s explicit orders.

In 1969, Shamir formally joined Begin’s “Freedom Party” (Herut), which Jewish luminaries such as Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt had decried years earlier as “a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties” which “preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority.”

In April 1988, during the first Intifada, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir warned that any Palestinian caught protesting would have his “head smashed against the boulders and walls.” He continued, “We say to them from the heights of this mountain and from the perspective of thousands of years of history that they are like grasshoppers compared to us.”

Shamir was a committed colonialist. Even when, in September 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush threatened to withhold “loan guarantees sought by Israel unless the Israeli Government, which has ignored all of his previous appeals to halt settlement-building in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, freezes building activity,” Shamir never halted further colonization of Palestine.

In June 1993, after being voted out of office, Shamir stated his desire to deliberately subvert any efforts to establish a Palestinian state by carrying out peace talks under false pretenses: “I would have conducted the autonomy negotiations for 10 years, and in the meantime we would have reached half a million [Jewish] souls in Judea and Samaria.”

Lamenting the end of his administration, Shamir said it was “painful that in the coming four years I won’t be able to increase settlements in Judea and Samaria and Gaza.” In 2005, Israelis voted Shamir the 29th Greatest Israeli in a poll conducted by Ynet.

Despite Shamir’s history of despicable violence and willful abrogation of international law, Barack Obama’s press secretary Jay Carney released a statement on behalf of the White House at the news of Shamir’s death.

“Yitzhak Shamir dedicated his life to the State of Israel,” the statement read. “From his days working for Israel’s independence to his service as Prime Minister, he strengthened Israel’s security and advanced the partnership between the United States and Israel.”

It is unsurprising that Benjamin Netanyahu praised his Likud predecessor, saying, “He was a paragon of loyalty to the Land of Israel and the eternal values of the Jewish people,” adding that “Yitzhak Shamir belongs to a generation of giants, who founded the State of Israel and fought for the freedom of the Jewish people in its land.”

One should remind Netanyahu of Shamir’s proud justification of terrorism or perhaps simply note the words of the mayor of Tel Aviv under British Mandate, Israel Rokach, who in 1944 accused Shamir’s Zionist militia of “lacking even a spark of humanity and Jewish conscience” after Lehi gunmen murdered three British police officers in a public shooting.

Shamir’s daughter, Gilada Diamant, claimed her father “belonged to a different generation of leaders, people with values and beliefs. I hope that we have more people like him in the future.” Certainly anyone who values human rights, justice, sovereignty, and self-determination for the Palestinian people, the rule of law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Nuremberg Principles does not share Diamant’s hope.

Thomas Friedman once wrote that Shamir “exemplifies those Israeli leaders whose vision of tomorrow is yesterday.” For all those whose innocent lives were obliterated or whose families suffered at the hands of Yitzhak Shamir due to his commitment to ethno-supremacism, colonialism and mass murder, any more visions of violence and bigotry that he may have had thankfully died with him.

58 comments for “Yitzhak Shamir: the Well-Liked Terrorist”

Give it a rest. Shamir was a murderer if not a terrorist. He murdered British officers in Tel Aviv. I don’t care what his race is. Or his religion. Murder is murder.

Karen Amber

July 2, 2012 at 6:06 pm

I concur Greg. Lies! Author talks as if Yittzhak Shamir’s actions were unprovoked. Isn’t that just like a anti semite to re-write history.

Robert Schwartz

July 2, 2012 at 6:39 pm

You are arguing that terrorism can be justified by provocation? Really now.

Mike

July 2, 2012 at 7:06 pm

Oh, right. Any time any Likud politician is critised, it’s automatically anti-semitism.

Ok, let’s replace some of Shamir’s words with some other words, and see how it sounds then:

“[The Jews] would be crushed like grasshoppers … heads smashed against the boulders and walls.”

“Neither [German] morality nor [German] tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war. We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle.”

“The past leaders of our movement left us a clear message to keep [the Sudetenland] for future generations, for the [German people], all of whom will be gathered into this country.”

Yeah, doesn’t sound so nice now, does it?

BTW, my grandfather was killed by Nazis during WWII, so think about that before you start in with the anti-semitism bit.

It’s SO tired to conflate not eating the Likud propaganda hook-line-and-sinker with anti-semitism. What you’re doing is disgusting and is trivialises the plight of the people who died under the Nazi regime, my grandfather included. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

F. G. Sanford

July 2, 2012 at 9:14 pm

Yitzhak Yezernitzky. He wouldn’t rewrite history, now…would he?

JIm

July 3, 2012 at 2:38 pm

That’s right. The Jews of Palestine, who were well armed and well trained, fought off the untrained, ill equipped Arabs who were attempting to drive them into the sea.

If Arabs were so hostile towards the Jews of Palestine, why were Jews able to immigrate there during WWII?

The Zionists view of Israel as some kind of Alice in Wonderland life is a bald faced lie! While we talk about Syria’s government cracking down on their foreign financed dissidents, Israel continues to colonize the West Bank and encircle the Gaza Strip, essentially choking off Palestinians economy and way of life.

We should be in the UN condemning Israel and their now 45 year occupation of Palestinians. Alas, as long as Zionists in the USA can buy off our politicians, Israel will continue to colonize Palestinian lands.

However, in the end, Israel, and perhaps dragging the USA with them, will not prevail. So, enjoy your racist assed shitty state of Israel, for it will again fall.

A 2010 study conducted by Professor Daniel Bar-Tal (Tel Aviv University) found out that an average Israeli prefer to live in ‘self-denial’ as he/she is not interested to know the facts about the Jewish history. They’re brainwashed with Zionist narrative of it and hatred toward Arabs and Muslims from an early age. The Zionist rabbis are known for using Talmudic texts to create hatred toward Arabs, Blacks and Christians. In 2009, Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Manis Friedman responded to a question “How Jews should treat their Arab neighbors?”, in the Moment magazine for its “Ask the Rabbi” feature, said: “The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way. Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle). I don’t believe in western morality. Living by Torah values will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat because of a disatrous morality of human invention…….”

All you bird brains should go to the library and research the meaning of anti-semiticism. An anti-semite is neither anti-jewish nor anti-israel. A semite is a resident of a geographical area of middle east. Shamir was as much of a semite as Bishop Tutu.

Doug

July 3, 2012 at 3:00 am

No, a Semite isn’t defined as someone from a geographical area. A Semite is a descendant of Shem, one of Noah’s sons. So depending on his blood line, Shamir may be Semitic.

“Semite is a linguistic term denoting peoples who spoke Semitic languages. Israelis are not Semites in spite of the fact that they speak Hebrew (it’s an adopted language of far too recent a vintage). The Zionists who created Israel and still run it are descended from the Khazars, linguistically a “Turko-finnic” people. The vast majority of Semites speak Arabic as their native language, making tribal Jewry, particularly the Israelis, the only people in the world who are truly “anti-Semitic” – and they’re virulently anti-Semitic,” Roger Tucker, American Jewish writer and blogger.

True, but the Jews are not the only Semitic peoples so it would make more sense to use anti-Jewish, anti-Hebrew, anti-Israeli instead of anti-Semite.

eCitizen

July 3, 2012 at 8:32 am

Haaretz is reporting today that Israel has instituted a new land registry for the West Bank. Jewish settlers will now be able to register ownership in their illegally built West Bank homes. There will be no process for Palestinians to appeal or to object to these registrations.

I have to laugh at Nima Shirazi’s comments on Shamir. If it wasn’t for Shamir, Israel wouldn’t exist and would be living under Sharia law and the aparthied policies of the Arabs. The 48 war was the was the result of the Palestinians together with their Arab allies to perform ethnic cleansing on the Jews and their failure to complete it. Every single Jew in the parts of the Mandate seized by the Arabs was expelled from their homes. No exceptions. The Arabs even dynamited the entire ancient Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem in an attempt to wipe out the history of Jewish residence there. They also made it illegal for a Jew to live in the areas of the former Mandate that they controlled, including East Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza and Jordan. 850,000 Jews were also forced from the Arab countries.

Then you say Arabs are being ethnic cleansed in East Jerusalem. The Arab population in 67 was 70,000. Today its 280,000. There population has grown 4 times since 67. The Israelis must be the worst at ethnic cleansing.

Its the Arabs that want ethnic cleansing.http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5490 PA TV: Western Wall area to be turned into Arab housing neighborhood. Palestinian Authority TV: Western Wall area to be turned into Arab housing neighborhood -Jewish presence in Jerusalem will be erased from history. Aug. 17, 2011

Just like 48 after the 5 Arab armies attacked Israel in 48, Haj Amin Al Husseini stated: I declare a holy war, my muslim brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all! The Arab League Secretary, General Azzam Pasha declared “a holy war. He said, “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades. Then you have the nerve to call Israel colonialist. The Arabs are invaders from Saudi Arabia. Tell me Mr Genius how do the Arabs have 22 countries when all the Arabs come from 1 country Saudi Arabia? How did the Arabs get all of North Africa from the Berbers? Look at the blacks in Sudan, Mauritania and Somalia. How the heck did those people become Arab? Do the people in Sudan look like Arabs to you? They dont to me. Its called Mohammad and his Jihad armies in the 7th century invaded and took the entire Mideast and North Africa and forced everyone they defeated to be Islamic and Arab.

The fact of the matter is, their was never in history any state called Palestine governed by Palestinians in history. Israel offered the Palestinians a state, even though there was never in history any state called Palestine governed by Palestinians. I have 2 words for you. Palestinian Rejectionism. The Palestinians refused to end the conflict as long as it meant that they would have to accept the legitimacy of Israel as a sovereign, permanent country and neighbor. Only when the Palestinians extremist/rejectionist/supremacist attitude changes will peace really be possible. Why dont you go on Palmediawatch see how the Palestinians glorify terrorists who massacre Israeli civilians, names streets after these terrorists and talk how Israel will be eliminated.

The Arabs have 80% of the Mandate borders and Israel has 20%. You forget the East Bank was part of the Mandate borders of 1917 and the Brits gave the Entire East Bank to the Arabs and named the country after the Jordan River. (Jordan) Jordan is 75% of the land. So stop with the nonsense that Israel has the majority of the land. Israel has 20% of the land, the Arabs 80%. Jordan also passed a law stating their country must be Jew free, pretty much like all the Arab countries. Oh but wait, there are 10 Jews in Yemen.

Even though their was never in history any state called Palestine, 6 times the Jews offered the Arabs a state. The Jews offered Arabs a two-state solution in 1919; accepted the two-state solution of the Peel Commission in 1937; accepted the UN two-state solution in 47-48. Israel offered the Palestinians a state in 2000; accepted the Clinton Parameters in 2000-01; and offered a state again at the end of 2008. The Palestinians rejected every offer, becoming the first people in history to reject a state 6 times and then set conditions for discussing another one.

The Arabs continually initiate the violence. The Israelis have not fired the first shots. Do the Palestinians expect not to be fired back on? Its ok for them to blow up school kids on buses, shopping malls, disco’s, pizzeria’s and Passover seders. Someone please explain to me how the Israelis could possibly live next to such a violent people. I personally don’t see how it can be done at this point. All I see is the Palestinians provoking war and using any method they can to get all of Israel. It seems that after 5 decades of terror and murder against Israel. The Palestinians might have realized that this campaign of terrorism and rejectionism has failed.

ISRAEL which is defending itself against Pan-Arabism, Arab imperialism and Arabization of the Middle East – that is the “problem you dont like.

The real problem is global Arab/Moslem insistence to spread hate, violence, wars, terrorism, lies, false accusations against Jews and reducing Jews to subhumans or second class citizens – slaves or servants – without any human rights.

Cathy Bell

July 3, 2012 at 1:50 pm

It is refreshing to see someone respond with facts instead of senseless namecalling. Please note, however, that Nina Shirazi never made the absurd claim that there are no Palestinian terrorists. Shamir admitted to deliberately targeting civilians and wrote that such terror is a valid tactic. He was a terrorist. Your argument seems to be that his terrorism was justified. You may be right. Israel never would have conquered the Promised Land initially were it not for their program of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Canaanites ordered by their God. Please notice that his reference to grasshoppers is from scripture. There is a big difference, however, between saying his actions were justified and saying that he acted in self defense. If you move from Russia to the Middle East and fight a war of agression to take back land you vacated 2000 years earlier, that’s not self defense. If you deliberately target civilians and endorse terror as a tactic, you are a terrorist whether you are Moslem, Jewish, or Christian white supremist.

Ed Frias – looks like a brainwashed Muslim-hating Zionist – you never read your Jewish history. While being expelled from every European countries – many Jewish communities did take refuge under Islamic Shria to escape western ‘anti-Semitism’.

Ed, you’re a voice of sanity amongst the rabid antisemites who kiss the medieval regiemes asses they so adore. As a liberal Jewish American who also loves Israel, if their nonsense came to pass, all Jews would have gone up in smoke or been exterminated. Heaven forbid a Jew wins a war and gains some land. The hypocrisy flows from this site which has so many good insights except their viscious fixation on Israel.

Ed Frias

July 3, 2012 at 9:29 am

Nima Shirazi, its the Palestinians that have no humanity. There is a difference between terrorism and defense of innocents. Israel targets terrorists, Israeli civilian deaths are the Palestinians goal. Big difference

Hamas and the PLO derive their legitimacy by killing Israeli secretaries and high schoolers.

The Palestinians have raised an entire generation to believe that the highest aspiration in life is to kill Jews. The Palestinians are engaged in an unremitting campaign of targetted murder of women and children. When the Palestinians massacre Israeli children on buses and babies in baby carriages, they celebrate. They have raised an entire generation to believe that the highest cultural and religious value is the massacre of Jews. Through the Arabs hate, an entire generation has lost the capacity for humanity.

The massacre of Palestinians at Deir Yassin is one of the most significant events in 20th-century Palestinian and Israeli history. This is not because of its size or its brutality, but because it stands as the starkest early warning of a calculated depopulation of over 400 Arab villages and cities and the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian inhabitants to make room for survivors of the Holocaust and other Jews from the rest of the world.http://www.deiryassin.org/mas.html

ron schaffner

July 3, 2012 at 10:28 am

yes indeed……that’s a good thing that Shamir let the would be murderous Palestinians of the time know who’s in charge over there!!!!!

Jeff Calvert

July 3, 2012 at 10:54 am

Nima Shirazi……I’m guessing your not Israeli. I’m also guessing your from that neighborhood though (the Middle East). Your a hack and a liar, how your visa allows you to still work here is a mystery to me, and a issue i’m sure some of your New York Jewish neighbors will be questioning as well. If you want to write slander, go back to Pakistan, they like inventing the news to suit their needs as well…

So far none of the trolls here have disputed a single word of the above article; rather, they’ve only thrown out worn-out and embarrassing ad hominems that make no sense and expose their own racism, bigotry, and sheer ignorance. Claims of “slander,” “lies,” and “inventing the news,” are so silly as to be irrelevant.

“Ed Frias” is a trolling moniker used often on various websites to post the same silly comments over and over again. Most comments are just cut-and-pasted in comment forms for article that are critical of Israel policy, Zionist ideology or actually expose the gross injustice Palestinians suffer at the hands of their colonizers and occupiers. The same person responsible for the “Ed Frias” posts appears to also use the name “Ken Kelso” from time to time, among many others. Well, that or they just cut-and-paste the same garbage. Apparently, searching IMDB for obscure names with few film credits is the way these hasbarists come up with their fake identities.

Jeff Calvert’s ridiculous, racist comment above hardly warrants a reply, but I’ll indulge only this once: I’m not from Pakistan or the Middle East, I’m from Manhattan. My name isn’t even remotely Pakistani – but, hey, I suppose they all must sound the same to bigots like you who can’t possibly conceive that anyone with such a spoooooky name as mine was actually born in this country. Beyond that, your appalling comment about “New York Jewish neighbors” reveals your own warped mentality, especially since you know absolutely nothing about my own family background and have no idea how absolutely absurd your suggestion is.

I won’t be responding here again, so to all you pathetic trolls out there, have a ball.

F. G. Sanford

July 3, 2012 at 3:26 pm

Great article, Nima-the trolls want everybody to buy into that “Land without a people for a people without a land” fairytale. As the over-used cliche says, “Entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts”. Their “facts” are worn out, but the cliche is still true. I note that the closest any of them comes to scholarship is correcting each others’ spelling errors.

ilse

July 3, 2012 at 7:56 pm

Excellent article. As soon as something critical about Israel is mentioned, cockroaches like Ed Frias and Jeff Calvert come out of their sewer cracks and defend instead of learning something they remain stupid. Possibly they have no choice, being mentally handicapped. Don’t worry about them. Keep up your good work.

Jeff Calvert

July 3, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Racist? Me? Nima I’m surprised. I just got done reading some of your greatest misses…THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROPOGANDA PROGRAM…hmm, I guess I know more about you then you think I do you fraud. ISRAELS westbank and gaza are only occupied by Jordanians who weren’t allowed to return home because the Jordanians and Syrians needed a sacrificial lamb there. They are in camps because of their own homelands….Your view of Obama is even wrong….He’s one of YOURS…hello, do you even pay attention..

However, I will concede that I was wrong about your Pakistani heritage, your obviously Jordanian, the Syrians are to busy trying to stay alive because their own “PEACE LOVING REGIME” wants them dead. why not write about that…

Jeff Calvert

July 3, 2012 at 12:52 pm

Your Iranian….interesting….

wyrdswyrth

July 3, 2012 at 2:04 pm

Mr. Calvert. Both your unabashed hatred of people browner than you, as well as your last name make you obviously Norwegian. But as a Norwegian, you don’t necessarily have to go down the Breivik road of blaming anyone and everyone – especially those browner than you – for all the ills of the world. And it’s not too late to abandon the practice of calling all acts of ethnic cleansing “defense.” For reasons I hope I don’t have to explain, that is a very slippery slope.

I know, I know – such thoughts are culturally Norwegian and it’s unfair to single you out. But you can elevate your nation, Mr. Calvert! Be a beacon of justice!

Oh, and it’s spelled “you’re.”

wyrdswyrth

July 3, 2012 at 2:04 pm

Wait. Sorry. You’re Uruguayan, aren’t you. I knew it! Typical….

wyrdswyrth

July 3, 2012 at 2:05 pm

Okay, okay, I was wrong. I have just ascertained that you are the King of Vanuatu. But everything else I said remains true!

Paul G.

July 3, 2012 at 4:40 pm

Vanuatu is inhabited mostly by Melanesians, who are delightfully brown.

Paul G.

July 3, 2012 at 4:30 pm

Marvelous the way so many “trolls” extol their bigotry. Note that Zionism is a subset of Judaism, the two should not be confused; and is the only major religion or part of one that believes it needs a geographical home to exist, and that God was once in the real estate business handing out eternal title to Middle Eastern property. Many Jews at the end of WWII considered the Zionists false prophets, leading their people to trouble. Judaism itself has a long tradition of humanitarianism; which was a factor in why the Nazi’s wanted to stamp it out as a hindrance to their remaking of Germany and occupied Europe into a martial state. Jewish culture, particularly among intellectuals, had been very influential in pre-Nazi Germany. The founding of contemporary Israel was abetted by countries that didn’t want an large influx of Jews, Britain and the US; the Zionists playing into their hands. By the way Palestinians are Semites.

Hillary

July 3, 2012 at 5:05 pm

Yitzhak Shamir real name Icchak Jeziernicki was another Eastern European Zionist Ashkenazi Khazar posing as one of the “Chosen People” in Palestine who as reported by Seymour Hersh directed that some of the intelligence stolen by American Jonathan Pollard, who spied for Israel, be turned over to the Soviet Union.

Shamir was the commander of the Lehi ( Stern Group or Stern Gang,) a militant Zionist group that originally sought alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during World War II offering to fight alongside them against the British.

Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, and made many other attacks on the British in Palestine & assassinated United Nations mediator Folke Bernadotte .

Lehi and Irgun were jointly responsible for the massacre in Deir Yassin.

I don’t know what to say Nima. Jewish and Zionist bribe $$ in the name of lobby has been buying lawmakers of nearly every country to pass laws to protect these Zionist cockroaches. Look the state the US is now: scum and incompetent jewish drug pushing doctors, zionist educators in disguise, bankers and Hollywood crap artists have infested this nation. Arabs and Iranians were the only gracious people to welcome these rats while all others in europe and americas repelled them. Look what they have done to the world! World peace will return with extinction of Israel!

Actually, Mike, I don’t know what to say. Your own bigotry against Jews (not just Zionists) is just as appalling and indefensible as Jeff Calvert & Ed Frias’ bigotry against Arabs and Muslims.

Using terms like “scum,” “rats,” and “cockroaches” to describe people (even people whose political ideology of ethno-religious superiority, colonization and domination is abhorrent, despicable and indefensible) is reminiscent – if not identical – to the most racist kind of dehumanization that those of us who, in our own small way, strive to bring a little more truth and little more justice to this world are doing our best to fight against.

Recall the April 1983 comment made by IDF Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan. Eitan suggested a “nationalist Zionist response” to Palestinian resistance to occupation and subjugation, which – in his opinion – meant continued colonization to destroy any sense of Palestinian nationalism and solidarity.

“For every stone that’s thrown,” he said, “we will build ten settlements. If 100 settlements will exist – and they will – between Nablus and Jerusalem, stones will not be thrown. If this will be the situation, then the Arabs will only be able to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”

With the comments above about “Jewish drug pushing doctors” and more, you, Mike, prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are no fellow traveler of mine in this slow, frustrating and oftentimes admittedly futile slog towards justice.

[I know I said I wouldn’t comment again, but I believe Mike’s gross comments required a response.]

incontinent reader

July 3, 2012 at 11:14 pm

From the Israeli side, just read the histories that are sourced from the archives of the Haganah, Ben Gurion’s diaries, oral histories of former members of the Stern Gang and Irgun, and contemporary news articles from the late 1940’s, all of which sourced in the works of Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim- even Benny Morris. And, also read the recently published, “The General’s Son” by Miko Peled, and see his speeches on YouTube. Right now he is speaking at book presentations and events all over the country, and is someone with first hand experience of what is happening right now in Israel. It is persons such as Miko that should become the next generation of leaders i the Knesset.

As time goes on, the official propaganda will be less and less accepted and believed by the thinking public and the serious histories will take hold, and this seems to be borne out by the hysteria of the deniers.

In the meantime, Nima Shirazi’s article is an excellent addition to the discourse. Thank you, Nima, and thank you Bob Parry.

Brett Proctor

July 4, 2012 at 12:28 am

He was a man for the times. He defended his nation as he saw fit, he was human with all the flaws that come with that distinction. We throw epithets, and slurs and names much too carelessly these days. This is why the political system in our own country is at impasse. There is no tolerance and no courtesy in spite of years of political indoctrination, that we be “politically correct” and that man is “advancing.” Human nature is unchanging. The man was 96, he did what he thought would secure his nation. Get over it!

mudplanet

July 4, 2012 at 6:31 am

I’m trying to discern a difference between what you’re saying about Shamir and the qualities/motivations of the people you call “terrorists.” There seems to be a double standard at work here – when Jews do it it’s “heroism” and “patriotism” but when Palestinians do it it’s “terrorism.”

Ralya

July 4, 2012 at 12:15 pm

Wait, so assassination, terrorism, massacring unarmed men, women, and children, destroying villages, maintaining a brutal military occupation, building illegal settlements on stolen land and populating them with colonists in direct contravention of international law, and violently suppressing any resistance by an oppressed, dispossessed, displaced, and disenfranchised indigenous population to such aggression is just a matter of being “a man of the times” and a natural expression of “human nature”? That’s bizarre. By your deft logic, Hitler was also a “man of the times” and shouldn’t really be faulted for what he thought was right in order to “defend” and “secure his nation.” So did Hermann Goering. Clearly, by this standard, Daniel François Malan, J.G. Strydom, and Hendrik Verwoerd were just men of their times and shouldn’t be judged too harshly. Neither should Nathan Bedford Forrest or David Duke. Just like Baruch Goldstein, Yigal Amir, and Yaakov Teitel were acting based on what they thought was best to “defend their nation,” right?

Since “human nature is unchanging,” what’s the point of the rule of law, the Geneva Conventions or the Nuremberg Principles? War crimes and crimes against humanity are really just constructs of our indoctrinated minds and efforts to be “politically correct” after all!

I mean, when someone murders your family, drives you from your ancestral homeland, steals your home and property, prevents you from ever returning or seeking compensation, restitution or reparation for what was taken from you, when you’ve been denied justice for so long that your children and grandchildren have been born into exile – stateless, occupied, denied basic rights like the freedom to work, freedom of movement, freedom to not be constantly fearful of Apache helicopters, F-16s, drones, snipers, white phosphorous, night raids, indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial, administrative detention, deliberate deprivation, institutionalized discrimination, a two-tiered ethnically-based Apartheid legal system, malnutrition, and lack of medical care or economic opportunity – please don’t whine about it and expose the suffering and injustice of it all, because, seriously, Brett, GET OVER IT!

miram

July 5, 2012 at 9:06 pm

Thank you for writing about what so many of us know about the famous terrorist shamir, but also many are afraid of AIPAC and its control of US Congress and the known terror on anyone who tells the truth about the crimes committed by the Israel’s government on a daily basis, and the cruel and inhuman occupation and oppression in Palestine

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